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New Mexico Rifle Elk with Leupold's Tim Lesser: Day-By-Day

Big Fin

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Many of you many have watched this episode on Sportsman Channel earlier this month, but this is the day-by-day version that is much longer than you saw on TV. Unfortunately, a lot of the footage is not what we would like, as the wind was hammering the tripods and making for a lot of unstabilized footage, along with some terrible audio.

It is a rifle elk hunt in central New Mexico with Tim Lesser, VP of Product Development at Leupold. This is Tim's second hunt with us. Two years ago he shot a really nice Montana mule deer in some brutal cold conditions.

This is the scouting day. Not sure what it is about Tim, but he always brings some sort of strange weather condition. Two years ago it was one of the coldest November hunts I've had in a long time. On this hunt, it is a week of crazy winds that pushed all the elk down into the canyons where the winds were much less. As a result of the footage being compromised by wind, this day-by-day hunt will not be as long as some others.

This hunt was on a unit-wide landowner voucher that allows Tim to hunt the entire unit, something necessary for our public land premise. Tim applied and did not draw. I say this, as I know it is controversial to some and I put it out there so nobody thinks we are hiding anything. Part of TV and sponsorship, at least for us, is that many of the partners like to send one of their staff on a hunt to see how we use their gear. Tim is usually the person Leupold sends, where he takes notes as to how Tyler (cameraman and hunting badass) and I use their gear. The instruction from Leupold is always, "Take us on hunts that are most demanding of you and equipment." OK, coming right up. To accommodate that, we always apply for tags in the drawings and if not drawn we arrange a backup plan in the form of a unit-wide voucher in a state that allows us to hunt public lands on that tag.

The time frame for this hunt was October 15-19. The bulls were in a post-rut pattern, with the younger bulls still chasing cows and the old bulls headed for the sanctuaries.

On a side note, the Forest Service often takes a hit for many things. In this instance, they permitted us for a Wilderness Area, something that is hard to do. They enjoy our message and want more promotion of backcountry hunting as one of the values Wilderness Areas provide. I want to thank that District for seeing the value of that message and working as hard as they have to permit us for the Wilderness Area. This is a tough piece of country, burned heavily and terrible to negotiate. Not a place for the fair weather elk hunter.

Day 1- Window Shopping

[video=youtube_share;M547qtWQ8hE]https://youtu.be/M547qtWQ8hE[/video]
 
Day 2, Opening day, is here:

[video=youtube_share;ntHUYcjamXI]https://youtu.be/ntHUYcjamXI[/video]
 
Day 3: This is turning out to be another one of "those hunts."


[video=youtube_share;h4--U5i5_gY]https://youtu.be/h4--U5i5_gY[/video]
 
Big Fin, on your scouting day video at 2:27 that bull appears very nice. I am surprised with the comments from Tim that there were only some that made him wonder. What's the backstory on why you didn't go after him on opening day and day 2?
 
Big Fin, on your scouting day video at 2:27 that bull appears very nice. I am surprised with the comments from Tim that there were only some that made him wonder. What's the backstory on why you didn't go after him on opening day and day 2?

He headed out of the country and we could never see where he disappeared to. We were looking for him, but he vanished.
 
I appreciate these videos for the insight (unedited) that allow me to gain even more knowledge from your show. Cool stuff.

Maybe I missed it on my little phone's screen, but what caliber was used? 300WM?
 
I appreciate these videos for the insight (unedited) that allow me to gain even more knowledge from your show. Cool stuff.

Maybe I missed it on my little phone's screen, but what caliber was used? 300WM?

.338 Win
 
Day 4, the day it comes to a conclusion.

[video=youtube_share;Cs0eKcxpDPc]https://youtu.be/Cs0eKcxpDPc[/video]
 
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